


Choice and Consequence

by knave_of_swords



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Established Relationship, F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Male My Unit | Byleth, Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:01:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26304568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knave_of_swords/pseuds/knave_of_swords
Summary: Dorothea finds out about divine pulse, and that Byleth had fought the war several times-- but more importantly, that she had ended up with a different person each time he had done so? Byleth won't be able to dodge her curiosity this time, so he tells her about each of the times he rewound time back to the beginning, and her other endings that he had erased.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23
Collections: Horny Void





	Choice and Consequence

It happens by accident. Byleth hadn't ever intended to let anybody know about his previous attempts, the many failed loops he had gone through, before he accepted that he would never be able to save everyone. He's having tea with Dorothea in their garden when it slips out, and he tells Dorothea that he is so happy that this time, he was finally able to be with her, to have her to himself.

“What do you mean, this time?” Dorothea asks. Byleth pauses. He hadn’t meant to say it, but it isn’t like he wants to keep it a dark secret, hidden from her. They're married, she deserves to know this by now.

“I’ve told you about my ability to rewind time,” he begins. 

“Wait, you were serious about that? I thought it was some sort of metaphor for being able to analyze a battlefield so well,” Dorothea interrupts, incredulous. Byleth frowns a fraction. 

“As serious as I was about my heart not beating all those years ago.”

“Don’t be silly, darling, of course you have a heart beat. I’ve felt it.” Byleth’s lips flatten. He had really thought that he had been quite serious when he told her that. He would have to work on conveying his authenticity better. 

“My heart started beating after we beat Rhea,” he says. “When my hair turned back to its original color.”

“Really?” Dorothea asks, though it’s not quite skepticism in her face and more wonder. 

“Yes." 

“Huh,” she says. “That’s almost a relief to hear, honestly." 

“What do you mean?” Byleth asks, confused. 

“You didn’t have some preternatural ability to know exactly where enemy soldiers would be. You’re as human as the rest of us. We just never got to see you get caught off guard.” Byelth raises an eyebrow. 

“You find out that the power of the Goddess let me rewind time, and I become more human to you?” Dorothea would never stop surprising him. 

“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds silly,” she says, as if there’s any other way to put it. 

“But anyways, go on, you were telling me about ‘this time’— Oh! Did you redo your proposal until I said yes?” 

“Not quite. I used my ability for only short rewinds most of the time, but a handful of times I rewound years, back to when I first came to the Officer’s Academy.” Dorothea’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. 

“So the me that you’re speaking to now wasn’t the only me you ever knew?” 

“I supposed that depends on how you see time, if it is all one single stream, or branches off into separate realities.”

“Hmm,” Dorothea hums, considering it. “That’s too difficult to think about, honestly. And you were the one traveling through time anyways, so you would know best.”

“To me, it’s a single stream, with different currents. It’s difficult to see everybody as unique in each timeline I traversed. If I did, I don’t think I would have gone back to the beginning, if I thought that there were other realities out there containing my desired outcome.”

“Your desired outcome being married to me?” she asks, her lips quirking upwards. She was flattered. 

“Yes, though I also sought to change the course of the war,” he says with a smile that falls after a moment. “It was ultimately my goal to find a path that was able to save all of you. Not just the Black Eagles, but the Golden Deer and the Blue Lions. And the people we knew from the Church of Seiros.” 

Dorothea nods in understanding. “That’s why you spared Flayn and Seteth,” she says. “And sent us out in formations that avoided engaging former students.” Byleth nods. 

“Indeed,” he says. Sadness falls over his face. “I still regret that I could not save Dimitri and Rhea. I wonder if I still had the ability to rewind, if I could have done so. But Rhea, she died no matter what, it seemed. And Dimitri... he and Edelgard both died nearly every time. It felt like a miracle just to find this path, where Edelgard didn’t have to die. I don’t know if I could help them both. To save each, they needed to trust me and rely on me. And I could only teach one class, could only be a personal confidant to one of them at a time.”

“Wait a moment,” Dorothea interrupts. “Why didn’t you use your knowledge of the future to stop the war before it happened?”

“Going back so far... my memories of each timeline were poor at best. I remembered things from other timelines as they happened in this one, and the memories became clearer the longer in the past they were. I remember most of everything clearly now, but as a professor I had only the haziest recollections of what would happen in the future. When I went back, I had a brief moment to write myself a note on what to do differently, but only in broad strokes. Choose the Blue Lions House. Pick Claude. Believe in Edelgard.”

“You didn’t think to mention me?” Dorothea teases him. 

“I didn’t have to,” he says with a smile. “You’ll understand more once I explain some more. The first time around, I lead the Black Eagles." Byleth sips his tea. Dorothea's eyebrows knot in confusion.

"But I didn't join Edelgard. I defended the church, and was on the oppsite side of the war from her. You all followed me, and when I woke from my five years of death, we were a part of the resistance army. We defeated Edelgard, and won the continent, but--"

"Hold on," Dorothea interrupts. "We followed you? We didn't stick with Edie? Did we only follow Edie in this timeline because of you, too?"

"Hmm," Byleth hums. "Yes, you all did follow me. I'm not entirely sure why. You were all very young then, don't forget. It's possible it didn't occur to you to join Edelgard. But no, in most other timelines all of you chose to follow Edelgard, unless I… interfered, so that first time was the exception."

"Interfered?"

"I..." Byleth hesitates. "My second time around, I chose the Blue Lions." Byleth doesn't miss Dorothea's raised eyebrows. They both know that that doesn't answer her implied question.

"I taught the Blue Lions, and tried to focus on helping Dimitri. I thought that you all would be fine, and scatter to the winds when war broke out." Byleth sets down his teacup. "Imagine my surprise when I saw Ferdinand at the Bridge of Myrddin." He stays silent for several moments. 

Dorothea puts her hand on his. He knows that she understands, that he doesn't have to say it out loud. They both had connected with the students in other houses far more than any of the other Black Eagles had. She might understand the pain of facing a former friend in battle more than anyone else still alive could. 

"Anyways," Byleth says, moving on, "it was then that I knew I had to steel myself to face you all. But I didn't expect--" he drops off again. Dorothea watches him patiently. He picks his teacup back up and sips from it. 

"I didn't expect you to be at the Siege of Enbarr," he finally admits. Dorothea's eyes widen. "There you were, behind a row of demonic beasts, near the opera house. I could hardly believe it. I made my way to where you were. You said something about destiny, and then that if I win, to at least kill you quickly, and then you fired off a Thoron." 

Dorothea watches him patiently, waiting for him to finish. He doesn't.

"Did you kill me?" she asks softly, squeezing his hand. Byleth doesn't answer. 

"It was reflexive," he says eventually. "An instinctual reaction in the midst of battle to an attack." Dorothea only nods.

"That was when I realized," Byleth says. "that I loved you." He pauses to sip his tea again and gauge Dorothea's reaction. Her face was difficult to read. Sad, but in a way that seemed more on his behalf than hers. He sets his teacup down.

"That was when I rewound, and went back to the beginning again." Dorothea's eyes shoot up in surprise. 

"You didn't even finish the battle?" she asks, incredlous.

"No," Byleth answers with a wry smile. "I didn't want to live in a world where I had killed you. Regardless of how the war ended up." They sit in silence for a moment.

"Anyways," Byleth continues. "My third time, I tried teaching the Golden Deer. And this time, I made sure to befriend you again in the hopes that you would transfer to my house and I wouldn't have to kill you again in five years. It worked."

"The Golden Deer, huh?" Dorothea mutters. "They're so different from the Eagles that I can hardly imagine it." Byleth smiles.

"You fit in quite nicely, for the most part. You and Leonie hit it off right away."

"Is she who I ended up with in that timeline?" Dorothea asks. "Wait, who did I end up with in the first two? You never told me that. And how could I have ended up with anybody in the timeline where I died?"

"Oh, right," Byleth says. He had forgotten the reason he was telling this story at all. "You went back to Brigid with Petra in the first timeline. It was clear you two loved each other, though I'm not certain how much either of you had expressed those feelings to each other." Byleth bites his lip.

"I still feel a bit bad for robbing you of the happy endings you could have had with others. I cheated; I got a second and third chance with you." Dorothea purses her lips and tilts her head, considering his statement.

"I do admit, that it does seem like it could be an unsettling idea," she says. "But I still have my own autonomy after all. If I was never capable of loving you back, I don't think it would have mattered how many tries you had." Byleth nods.

"I suppose," he says. "Regardless, it's silly to regret it now. It's not like I can go back and do it over again if I wanted to, and I wouldn't want to anyways. 

"But on to the second timeline. I'm less certain here than in any other timeline, given that I was not your professor nor commanded you in battle during the war. But I think--" Byleth hesitates again. Dorothea motions with her hand for him to carry on.

"I think you loved Edelgard," he finally says. Dorothea's eyebrows don't raise this time, and instead she smiles, just a bit.

"I didn't realize it at the time, but I did have a crush on her back at Garreg Mach," Dorothea admits. "Sometimes during the war it felt like maybe something was there between us-- or could be, if either of us reached out. But how could you tell, Professor? After just seeing me on the battlefield for a little while."

"It was that you were fighting at all, I think," Byleth says. "You hate killing, but you fight for the sake of those you love. Not to protect them, but to stand beside them." Dorothea fixes Byleth with a sharp look, and then relents.

"You've always been able to see right through me," she sighs, pushing a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. "That was certainly the case in this timeline. Whenever I questioned why I was fighting, killing, spilling so much blood-- it always came back to you and Edelgard, but mostly you. You had believed in Edelgard, and I believed in you." Dorothea sighs again. "And her," she adds as an afterthought. "I did believe in her, but I don't know if I would have had the resolve to continue without my belief in you. Although apparently I did in that timeline." Byleth nods. 

"I don't know if you would have fallen in love with Edelgard again in this timeline if I didn't pursue you," he admits. 

"Pursue me?" Dorothea asks.

"Yes. I didn't spend too much time with you the third time, when I recruited you into the Golden Deer. I thought I would have plenty of time to court you after the war."

"But that didn't happen," Dorothea said, her tone half-questioning.

"No." A hint of red rises to Byleth's cheeks, barely visible. "By the time all of the battles were over-- we were unfortunately surprised with several after the war was technically over-- you were already romantically involved with someone else." Dorothea leans forward.

"Who was it?" she asks, eyes glittering with excitement. "Claude? Leonie? You said we hit it off well." Byleth shakes his head.

"I don't think you would believe me if I told you," he says.

"Hilda? Ignatz?" Dorothea is practically bouncing in her seat as she leans forward more. "You  _ have _ to tell me." Byleth rubs his hand against his chin. There was no avoiding it, it seems.

"After the actual final battle, during the celebration feast, you and Lorenz were sitting next to each other and holding hands." 

_ "Lorenz?" _ Dorothea's jaw hangs open. "You're messing with me. There is no way I ended up with Lorenz." Byleth only nods solemnly.

"You did." He pauses. "But I would like to make clear that I didn't rewind the timeline solely to steal you away from Lorenz. My heartbreak was my own fault, and I could not risk going back again and possibly losing the war for mistakes made in my personal life." He picks up his teacup again and takes a sip, only to make a face when he realizes that the tea has gone cold, and gently sets it back down on the table.

"It was something else, then," Dorothea says. "There was some other reason that you went back, and chose Edelgard."

"Indeed," Byleth says. "Claude did not want to lead the now-united continent of Fodlan himself. He left me in charge as its ruler, which worked fine for a month or two. But I was completely unprepared to rule a nation, let alone one as fractured as Fodlan had become, and it wasn't long before it was all falling down around my ears." He sighs. "What good is winning a war if the people suffer anyways?"

"But why didn't you go back and choose Dimitri again?" Dorothea asks. "And wait, why didn't you encounter the same problem in your first timeline? It's not like there would have been anybody else to rule Fodlan then, either."

"I was very unsatisfied with that first timeline," he says. "It broke my heart to kill Edelgard, and then I had to kill Rhea, too. She transformed into the Immaculate One and went berserk, unable to control herself. We had to put her down." Byleth frowns. He usually doesn't like to think about his past failures like this, but he doesn't want to hide this from Dorothea. "After everything was over, and all my students scattered to the winds, and I was left alone..." He trails off. "I couldn't bear it," he finally says, simply. "So I did something that I wasn't sure was even possible, and tried to rewind back to the beginning. Perhaps if I had chosen a different house from the start, I could at least not be alone." 

"But Dimitri?" Dorothea asks again, curious. Byleth sighs again.

"I think I realized that if he and Edelgard died in every other timeline, that I would only be able to save one of them in the end. I wondered if I had truly made the right choice, in that first timeline. Perhaps if I had reached out my hand to Edelgard back then, things would have been better." Byleth looks Dorothea in the eyes. "In the end, I chose the people that I wanted to be with, the people that I would be most heartbroken over losing. And damn all the rest," he adds grimly. Dorothea frowns at him.

"You did your best," she assures him. "Thank you for sharing this with me," she says after a moment of silence between them. Byleth smiles at her.

"Thank you for listening," he says. "It can be a burden, knowing of those other timelines where I failed. It's a little bit of a relief that you know now, honestly." Dorothea squeezes his hand.

"I will happily share that burden with you," she says. "You don't have to ever feel like you're alone anymore."

"Thank you, Dorothea."


End file.
